The Department of Social Welfare and Development – National Capital Region (DSWD-NCR) sets to implement the General Weighted Average (GWA) policy in compliance monitoring of the Pantawid Pamilya high school beneficiaries for SY 2015-2016.

As stated in the National Advisory Committee (NAC) Resolution 18 of DSWD, “children in elementary who repeat a year level in school are allowed to continue with the program. Children in highschool are required by the end of the school year to reach the passing General Weighted Average prescribed by DepED, and/or promoted to the next year level.”

With this, high school beneficiaries must reach the appropriate GWA to pass their current level in high school for them to be continuously monitored in the education conditionality of Pantawid Pamilya.

DSWD-NCR Regional Director Ma. Alicia S. Bonoan said that this policy of the Department shall push the high school student-beneficiaries to finish their secondary education since failing at any level in high school will remove their qualification to be monitored in compliance verification under the said conditionality.

Based on the study conducted by Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PDIS), the wage of high school graduates is 40% higher than those of the elementary graduates thus, age expansion shall be implemented in order to access the student-beneficiaries to better employment and other opportunities.

In 2014, DSWD implemented the age expansion of Pantawid Pamilya wherein from 0-14, the program is now covering and monitoring 0-18 years old children for health and education conditionalities with still a maximum of three (3) children per household.

For the said expansion, the cash grants for complying in the education conditionality include P500.00 for high school beneficiaries while P300.00 for elementary and P500.00 for the health condition.

In Metro Manila, as of April 2015, a total of 112,789 children in highschool, 258,375 in elementary and 42,900 in preschool are being monitored in education conditionality of the Pantawid Pamilya Program for SY 2014-2015.###